Beth motioned for Flare to come and the dog quickly trotted over to her. The girl was yelling something at her, but she was already done with trying to interact with the girl. If the girl wanted to follow her, then Beth wouldn't complain, but she wasn't going to try to talk with the girl. Not unless they had some way of actually communicating, rather than just confusing each other.
Yet, as she rounded the tree, she saw her friends hadn't stopped their approach. She wasn't sure what to feel about it at the moment, but she had to admit that it probably would save time. She'd had enough foraging for the moment at least. It might be just about the middle of the day, but she'd rather head back and maybe take a nap.
With all that had been going on, it would be nice to just relax and be lazy for the rest of the day. She just hoped that this girl wouldn't be a nuisance for the rest of the day. Though, if her friends hadn't finished their foraging, she wouldn't complain if they wanted to stay. However, Beth was sure that she didn't want to do this any more. Or at least for the rest of the day. Especially if she would run into people like this girl.
"What's the problem?" Tim called out when Beth saw him by another of the giant trees in the distance.
"Right there," Beth called back, indicating the girl who was still following her, though she kept a distance of about ten feet away, her knife at the ready in case someone might try to rush her or something.
As she looked closer, she suspected that the girl was more scared than she let on. Her hand was shaking rather badly and Beth was pretty sure that there was another reason that the girl had approached Beth in the manner that she had. She just couldn't figure out what it might be.
"Who is she?" Tim asked.
"No clue," Beth replied, as she continued walking towards Tim.
"Did she do anything?" Amelia asked jogging as she appeared in the distance from around another of the trees, drawing Beth's attention.
"Nothing that I couldn't handle," Beth called back, wondering if she should mention what Flare had been doing. She wasn't sure herself and couldn't be sure her friends wouldn't take the development kindly.
They didn't say much for a minute. The time was spent allowing each other to get closer so they didn't have to talk so loudly to each other.
"How much did you get?" Amelia asked as they got close enough to talk normally. "I got a full bag of blues and half a bag of reds."
"I got about half a bag of each," Beth replied, "but I'm done with this. Once we drop these off at the house, then I'd like to head back to our camp and just relax the rest of the day."
"Sounds good to me," Wes said, appearing from what felt like nowhere, though Beth was sure that she just hadn't seen him.
"Think we have enough?" Amelia asked.
"Well, we only needed one for all of us and Charlie," Tim remarked. "Even if the two that Ralph and you had used yesterday wasn't enough, I don't really think we need so many blue mushrooms, but I think it's kinda hard to say how many reds we'd need. I mean, we could spend an entire month gathering up the reds, but who's to say how much that would get us?"
"Fine," Amelia replied casually. "It's not like we know if we might need more of the blue mushrooms anyway. I just thought that it would be good to collect some while we had the opportunity to do so."
"Uh, what do you want to do about that girl?" Wes asked, looking past Beth to see the girl, holding her knife out in a clear defensive posture, though her shaking was such that it was clear she wouldn't be able to fend off a serious attack anyway.
"Let her follow us or not," Beth said. In all honesty she really didn't care. The girl wasn't a threat to them as long as she didn't catch them off guard. Though, Beth had a feeling she was mostly a threat because she was scared herself. "As long as she doesn't actually try anything to us, I'm sure she'll be fine."
"I guess," Wes muttered, as they all turned to head back.
Beth at first had half-expected the girl to follow them, but when she glanced behind them after about half an hour, the girl wasn't anywhere to be seen. Beth didn't really care. She wasn't that concerned about the girl anyway. She didn't know if they could expect the girl to appear again or the girl had decided that Beth and her friends weren't a threat or something.
Regardless of the reason or reasons, Beth was satisfied that the girl wasn't following them. However, she couldn't help but wonder if the girl would show up again at some point. She would have liked to have gotten more information from the girl about herself, but since they didn't have anyone who could communicate with her, Beth had to be satisfied that they parted ways rather peacefully rather than on clear hostile terms.
Beth yawned as they continued walking. While they had needed to go pretty deep into the forest for a good supply of the mushrooms, she wished they could have at least set up something to use to get back to the camp faster.
All the walking they'd done, including the time they spent getting to this world, had taken its toll on them, though Beth was sure none of them would complain. Charlie might have, but since she wasn't with them right then, that wasn't something she let herself think too much about.
At least she hoped it wouldn't be a problem. Something in the back of her mind told her that they hadn't seen the last of that girl. If that was the case, Beth could only hope that their next encounter with her would be where they could have Ralph translate for them, if the rest of them hadn't learned enough of the language of this area to actually converse with that girl.
_
Ralph opened his eyes to sa sight that annoyed him more than anything else. The children who he'd been essentially babysitting were just staring at him from the other side of the table. Like he was a lab specimen they were observing to see what they could learn. The only one that wasn't staring at him was the infant that Cinder was holding in his arms gently.
He could tell that he'd fallen asleep, but now he had to endure the children looking at him and giggling about something. All he could be sure of right now was that he wasn't likely going to like what it was that they were giggling about.
"You snore like my mother," the younger boy, Rephis, commented.
Ralph sighed. He couldn't be sure what kind of comment that was. He doubted it was a compliment, but it didn't sound like an insult either. He wondered if it was just one of those comments kids would make that didn't really mean anything in particular.
Ralph looked at the door and was a little surprised to see that the light shining through the walls and door indicated that it was getting rather late in the day. He was surprised at how long he'd been sleeping. Though, he doubted that the children had slept near as long as he had. Especially since they were already taking time to just stare at him like they still were.
"So, I guess you're feeling better?" Ralph commented, more to have something to say rather than actually caring whether they did or not. After all, that was Amelia's department, not his.
"A bit," Cinder replied.
Ralph nodded, wondering how much longer his friends were going to leave him there by himself. Especially since they didn't really explain why he had to be the one to stay there or why any of them needed to stay with this family. It wasn't like they hadn't been able to manage on their own before they'd even showed up.
Ralph got up and stretched. He hoped that his friends would return soon, if only so he could get his focus. It would at least give him more to entertain himself if nothing else. Just sitting here was beyond boring. It actually made him wish he was in school again. At least the lectures would have given him something to focus on, if not material to make complaints about.
A sound from outside drew his attention. At first he couldn't place it, but since he didn't hear any talking, he suspected that it wasn't his friends. When the sound occurred again, he could tell that it was from rustling grass. It sounded like it was getting closer too.
"Is that Em'ri'?" the youngest girl asked, looking rather hopeful.
"Embris is that you?" Cinder called out, heading to the door.
"It's me, Cinder," a voice called back.
Ralph was startled. Edraeas had indicated that Embris was his daughter, but the person Cinder was talking to had a deeper voice than he'd expected.
"What're you doing here?" Cinder asked. "The orange is still up. You can't be seen here!"
"I came because there were strangers in the forest of the lost," Embris replied. "I had to make sure you were okay. They were gathering Hisasi and Hisusi mushrooms."
"That must be Amelia's and Ralph's friends!" Cinder said cheerfully.
There was silence for a minute and Ralph hoped it wasn't going to end in an explosion of rage or anything like that.
"Who is Amelia and Ralph?" Embris asked, sounding like she was forcing herself to be calm.
"Amelia's the one who was able to treat out spotted plague!" Cinder replied cheerfully.
"Wait. Treat? What're you talking about?"
"I saw them put the Hisusi mushroom in a pot of water and they heated it up until it boiled. Then Amelia used it to wipe us down with it. Even father is feeling better now, but Amelia said that she needed to get more because she wasn't recovering as fast as she had when she had the spotted plague," Cinder answered.
Ralph heard Cinder's sister sigh from outside. "How can you trust them? For all you know they're going to try and take all of you as slaves."
"If they want to do that, then shouldn't we welcome it?" Cinder asked. "If not for them we might have all died anyway."
Ralph felt like this conversation was taking a dark turn. He didn't like it and was going to put a stop to it. Besides, he couldn't help but feel like if he let this conversation go on, he wasn't sure how much worse it could get. Just that he was certain it could.
"Stop talking like that," Ralph ordered. "If we were going to do something like that we wouldn't have just taken care of you like that."
"Who is that?" Embris asked, her tone alarmed.
"That's Ralph," Cinder replied. 'He was looking after us while his friends went to get more mushrooms."
"If his friends are who I encountered, why weren't they able to understand me?" Embris asked.
"Because of my magic," Ralph answered. "That's also why they left me here, though I don't understand why someone needed to be left here anyway."
"What're you intentions here?" Embris demanded.
Ralph yawned. "'Intentions?'" he asked. "I'm just here to keep an eye on them. If they want to stick their finger in an outlet I wouldn't stop them. I really couldn't care less about your family."
Ralph knew he was sounding callous, but he really didn't care. He didn't know them and wasn't sure if he should get to know them. Maybe he was being a little harsh, but in reality, he was sure that it was more his annoyance talking than anything he deeply felt about this situation.
"Then why are you still here? Leave my family alone!" Embris roared.
Ralph merely sighed. "Look, I'd love to, but I'd have to explain it to my friends and Amelia can get rather scary when it comes to someone she considers her patients," Ralph answered, though he would freely admit that he'd leave if he thought Amelia wouldn't be upset about it.
"Em'ri'," the youngest girl, Nymis, said, coming up next to Cinder. Ralph just realized she'd been wanting to say something for a while, but had been trying to wait for their conversation to end. Yet, she finally had run out of patience. "Guess what?"
"Not now," Embris said to her sister before pausing to take a deep breath. Then her next question was clearly meant for Ralph. "What will it take for you to leave my family alone?"
"For my friend Amelia to say it's fine. She'll probably want to make sure they have a clean bill of health too, but otherwise that's it," Ralph answered.
"Em'ri'!" Nymis whined.
Embirs sighed. "Alright, what is it? She asked.
"Ral' snore' li'e mother," Nymis replied.
"Really?" Embris asked, sounding like she wasn't just humoring the girl.
"It's true! We all heard him," Rephis said cheerfully.
"When was he sleeping?" Embris asked.
"He slept since around noon, I think," Cinder answered, "and woke up just before you got here."
Embris was quite for a few minutes before she started laughing. Ralph wasn't sure if that was a good thing, but he figured he should just let it go. If she was amused, then it probably didn't signal anything bad in regards to him.
"Well, I guess that proves he wasn't planning on selling any of you," Embris said when she started to calm down, even though her voice was thick with amusement.
"Well, my friends should be back soon," Ralph said. "They'll be bringing some more of the blue mushrooms."
"Why?" Embris asked, her tone suddenly sounding very suspicious. "What're you going to do?"
"Hey, I'm not going to do anything," Ralph protested. "My friend Amelia's the one who'll be giving your family another treatment. I'll be stepping outside while she does that."
"Outside?" Embris asked, sounding more horrified than Ralph expected. "But they're in a quarantine!"
Ralph sighed. "Hey, you guys don't have your own rooms. I'm not going to just stand here to see any of your family naked. I have to protect my own eyes, right?"
"What's that have to do with anything? Embris raged.
"It has to do with the fact that there's some things a person just doesn't need to see, or want to see for that matter, and this would be one of them," Ralph retorted.
"That still doesn't explain what you were talking about," Embris snapped back.
"Don't get your panties in a twist," Ralph returned. "I'm just saying it the way it is. If you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen then."
"Now you're just talking nonsense,"Embris growled, the heat of her anger seeming to have subsided, at least a little.
Ralph merely shrugged. "Suit yourself," he merely replied.
During this exchange, Cinder and his siblings were looking uneasy about how Ralph and their sister were reacting to each other. Though, when their verbal fight settled down, they seemed to take heart at that fact.
"Uh, Embris, when Amelia comes again, maybe she'll say we're cured and we can leave," Cinder said, clearly hoping to diffuse the tension between his sister and Ralph.
"Don't trust them too quickly, Cinder," Embris cautioned. "We don't know what they're up to."
"Ralph did tell us a new story," Rephis said.
"What kind of story?" Embris asked, sounding like she wasn't sure she'd like the direction this news would take the conversation.
"It was about a boy named Cinder," Cinder answered. "He went to a ball and caught the eye of the princess who decided she wanted to marry him."
Embris laughed. "What kind of story is that?" she asked, sounding just a little incredulous.
"Just a story that's well known where I'm from," Ralph answered. "Though, I did have to change some of the details since I could tell that your siblings wouldn't care for it in it's original form."
"What do you mean this time?" Embris asked, sounding rather irritated.
"Just that I'm not from around here and your siblings didn't care for the other stories that I tried telling them," Ralph answered, wondering what the girl's reaction to this would be.
"I see, you're not from around here, huh?" Embris asked, sounding a little sarcastic. "Where would you be from then?"
"Earth," Ralph replied without missing a beat.